British and Mercedes driver George Russell set the fastest time late on in the Friday afternoon session, to end Day 3 fastest overall.

Russell would run in the afternoon session, on Friday, following his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli appearing in the morning session. It would be late in the day lap from Russell who would dislodge Max Verstappen to end the fastest driver of Day 3.

The British driver is set for his fourth season with his Mercedes team, and with a 1:29.545 leaves the final day of pre-season testing the happiest and will look to take confidence from a very positive session, in Bahrain.

Day 3 in Bahrain was not without its dramas throughout, with the red flag making a couple of appearances throughout but they would be out for unusual circumstances.

One red flag was for a bus that so happened to enter the circuit, while the morning session was live, while another was due to broken glass right underneath the gantry on the start/finish straight, where the light controls are for the start/finish straight. This would be a pane to the drivers and teams!

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton would both end up in the top 10 overall, with both having one session each across the day. Leclerc did everything he could in the morning session to stay at the top, as he finished the morning session fastest. However, he would finish eighth.

As for Hamilton, he would end up in sixth place, in a session that was pretty quiet for the seven-time champion, when comparing his session to the other drivers on the grid. It would be less than 50 across the four-hour afternoon session for Hamilton.

Over at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, both drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar would have a mixture of days, with both getting valuable data for their team in a combination of simulation programmes, to aid their strategy department and Engineers' team.

Tsunoda competing in the afternoon would see himself finish seventh, behind the Ferrari of Hamilton. Whereas, his teammate Hadjar was down in 15th, almost nine tenths off the best morning time, set by Leclerc in ninth.

Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman of Haas were embarking on a brand new era for the team, with them being a completely different lineup to the team's 2024 duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.

Ocon would be running in the afternoon session, following Bearman's morning outing. When the Frenchman got in the car, it would be a session where he would end up in eighth place, but it would fail to come without slight drama.

Ocon would have a spin during the session in the first two corners complex, which was a similar incident to the two previous days action where Lawson and Sainz had a spin there, in the first and second days respectively.

As for his British teammate Bearman, it would be a bit more of a difficult day as he would end up 18th and bottom of the 18 drivers that competed in the third and final day. His day would be hampered with his engine cover blowing off the car, making him miss a lot of track time.

Over at Aston Martin, it would be a day that would see both drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, finish outside the top 10. Both drivers were scheduled to have a session each. However, during the afternoon session, Stroll became unwell and therefore vacated the seat.

Before pulling away from the Day 3 action, Stroll would set some representative lap times and would finish 13th. He competed in the afternoon session, until he vacated the car. Alonso, who finished 16th. Alonso took the car for the rest of the afternoon in place of his teammate. This followed him appearing in the morning session.

Last but not least, at Sauber, their two drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were closely matched on pace, with both having a session in each on Friday, at the Sakhir International Circuit.

Hulkenberg would be the higher placing driver in 14th, with Bortoleto in 17th place. The Swiss team struggled for pace in 2024 but had hopefully used pre-season to give them valuable information to fix things for the racing season.

The regular racing season of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship would be next on the list and it will all begin on March 14, with Free Practice 1 at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. Albert Park will be hosting an opening round of the Formula One World Championship for the first time since 2019.

​

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Day 2 of testing in Bahrain resembled conditions often found in Europe, with cool temperatures and a period of rain, which stopped running for the majority of cars during the morning session.

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in the morning session with a fastest lap of 1:29.379 in the SF-25, with Carlos Sainz topping the timesheets in the afternoon and as the overall leader for the day in his Williams, after completing 126 laps staying in the car for both sessions.

Oscar Piastri and Nico Hulkenberg had the first bit of contact for the season, but both came off as largely undamaged.

Oscar Piastri was first out onto the track for the morning session, completing just 44 laps with a best lap time of 1m32.084s. Oscar and Nico Hulkenberg had the first bit of contact of the season, but both came off relatively undamaged.

Lando Norris climbed into the car during the afternoon session and completed 77 laps, finishing the day just behind his teammate in 14th place on the Day 2 leaderboard.​

Lewis Hamilton's second day of testing for his new team, Ferrari, saw him finish top in the morning session with a fastest lap of 1:29.379s making him the fastest of all the morning runners, after completing just 45 laps due to a rain delay. Lewis completed all his laps on the C3 tyre, switching between new and used sets.

Charles Leclerc was in the car for the afternoon session, starting with a used set of C3 tyres before putting on a new set of the same compound. He set a fastest lap time of 1:29.431 on the C3 tyres even though he used the C4 softer tyres. For long runs, he used the C3, C2 and C1 compounds.​

George Russell took to the track for the morning session, completing 70 laps and finishing the morning session in second place and finishing the day in fourth place.
​
Andrea Kimi Antonelli took part in the afternoon session and completed 87 laps in his Mercedes, finishing off the day in fifth, just behind his teammate.​

For Williams, Carlos Sainz took to the track for both sessions, completing 44 laps in the morning and a total of 126 laps for the day. Sainz topped the timesheet for the day with a lap time of 1:29.348.

At Aston Martin, Fernando and Lance Stroll split the sessions, with Fernando completing 45 laps for the day. and Stroll 57.

Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan shared driver duties during day two, with Pierre taking the morning session and completing 40 laps, with a fastest time of 1:30.430secs. Doohan was in the car for the afternoon session and completed 80 laps with a fastest time of 1:30.368secs.

Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar took the VCARB02 out for some laps during the morning and afternoon sessions. Yuki completed 46 laps, and Isack completed 94 laps at the Bahrain International Circuit.​

1) Carlos Sainz             1:29.348
2) Lewis Hamilton          +0.031
3) Charles Leclerc          +0.083
4) George Russell          +0.43
5) Andrea Kimi Antonelli +0.436
6) Lance Stroll                +0.881
7) Liam Lawson              +0.904
8) Jack Doohan              +1.02
9) Pierre Gasly               +1.082
10) Isack Hadjar             +1.327
11) Fernando Alonso     +1.352
12) Yuki Tsunoda           +1.445
13) Oscar Piastri            +1.473
14) Lando Norris            +1.534
15) Gabriel Bortoleto     +1.709
16) Nico Hulkenberg      +2.109
17) Esteban Ocon          +3.723
​18) Oliver Bearman        +5.024

McLaren's Lando Norris took the top spot on Day 1 of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, finishing fastest overall on Wednesday, with a lap time of 1:30.430. After a power outage stopped running for over an hour, the session was extended until 20:00 local time.

Norris took the afternoon session run and set the fastest lap in a British 1-2, with George Russell just 0.157 seconds behind him.

It would be a long day of testing action with a four-hour session in both the morning and afternoon, giving drivers and teams a chance to see their 2025 cars on track for the first time. 

The track conditions were slightly in favour of the afternoon session drivers, as it had cooled down and was slightly faster, with the track continuing to ramp up throughout the morning session.

Differences in lap performance could also appear between teams and drivers depending on what tyre compound was being used and their fuel loads. Drivers running lower fuel loads were faster than when the car was under heavy fuel load due to the extra weight that it brings.

In the morning session, the first 10 drivers out of the 20 got some vital lap time and simulation data recorded to aid their engineers, who would be seeing where time was being won and lost. In addition, tyre wear was also assessed by the strategy departments for each team.

For some of the new blood that graduated into Formula 1, it was mostly a positive day, as the young drivers made the step up to the world championship after their impressive feeder series careers - Antonelli was the highest-placed finisher out of the rookies.​

Oscar Piastri was first out onto the track for the morning session, completing 66 laps (220 miles) with a best lap time of 1m32.084s.

Lando Norris climbed into the car during the afternoon session and completed 52 laps (171 miles) with a best lap time of 1m30.430s and topped the timesheet by 0.157s. Lando completed significantly fewer laps than Oscar due to set-up changes and long periods in the garage, along with the red flag - due to the power outage.

Lando's last lap of the day was with the whole car covered down one side with flow-vis to give the team some insights into the aerodynamics at work - with a human wall being created as he arrived back into the pit lane.

Lewis Hamilton's first day of testing for his new team, Ferrari, saw him finish 14th overall despite finishing in a positive fifth place in the morning session. It was the first day that Hamilton would be on track in a Formula 1 event, driving for the Scuderia Ferrari outfit.

Lewis ran the C2 tyre on his first few laps with the addition of aero rakes to take measurements before running the C3 tyre with a different aero configuration and fuel loads. He completed 70 laps (379km) with a fastest lap time of 1:31.834s.

Charles Leclerc was in the car for the afternoon session, starting with the C2 tyres and switching to the C3. He ran with various fuel loads, gathering data, and finished the day with some practice starts. He completed 71 laps (384km) with a fastest lap time of 1:30.878s.​

Mercedes' new boy, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, was the driver at the top of the pile in the morning session and the fastest driver out of the first 10 to participate. He completed 78 laps and finished the day off in tenth place.

George Russell took to the track for the afternoon session, completing 70 laps and finishing 0.157s off Norris in the top spot.

Liam Lawson was the first to take to the track in the RB21; the Kiwi completed 58 laps, pushing the RB21 to the test with a few slides exploring the car limits. 

Max Verstappen was in the RB21 for the afternoon session, completing 74 laps, testing C3 medium tyres, flo-vis across the floor, and having the fastest lap time of 1:30.674s.

For Williams, Alex Albon took to the track for the morning session, completing 63 laps with the fastest lap time of 1:31.573, with Williams's new boy, Carlos Sainz, taking the afternoon stint. Carlos completed 68 laps with a best time of 1:30.955s.

At Aston Martin, Fernando was the first out on track, banking 46 laps over 250km, with a fastest time of 1:31.874. Lance Stroll took the afternoon session with the fastest time of 1:31.949s, covering 42 laps. The team will test the C1, C2 and C3 and intermediate tyres over pre-season testing.

Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan shared driver duties during day one, with Jack taking the morning session and completing 68 laps with the fastest time being 1:31.841s. Gasly was in the car for the afternoon session and completed 72 laps with a fastest time of 1:31.353s.

Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar took the VCARB02 out for some laps during the morning and afternoon sessions. Yuki completed 78 laps, and Isack completed 76 laps at Bahrain International Circuit.

Ollie Bearman was the first out on track for the Haas team, conducting a series of baseline runs on the C3 tyre before moving onto the C2 compound - he completed 72 laps of the circuit. Esteban Ocon was on track during the afternoon session with his new team and ran laps on the C2 and C3 tyre compound. He completed 88 laps - the day's highest individual driver lap count.

Sauber completed over 110 laps, with Nico Hulkenberg taking to the track in the morning, completing 55 laps (297km) with a fastest lap time of 1:32.169s. F2 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto was in the car for the afternoon session and completed 59 laps with a fastest lap time of 1:31.690s.

1) Lando Norris          1:30.430
2) George Russell      +0.157
3) Max Verstappen     +0.244
4) Charles Leclerc      +0.448
5) Carlos Sainz           +0.525
6) Pierre Gasly            +0.923
7) Andrea Kimi Antonelli +0.998
8) Liam Lawson           +1.13
9) Alex Albon               +1.143
10) Yuki Tsunoda         +1.18
11) Isack Hadjar          +1.201
12) Gabriel Bortoleto  +1.26
13) Lewis Hamilton     +1.404
14) Jack Doohan        +1.411
15) Fernando Alonso. +1.444
16) Lance Stroll          +1.519
17) Oscar Piastri        +1.654
18) Nico Hulkenberg +1.739
19) Esteban Ocon     +3.170
​20) Oliver Bearman   +5.092

Formula 1 is back for the 2025 season and is set for pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit from February 26-28, before the first race takes place in Australia on March 16.

The three day test will take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with team choosing to split their drivers across the three days however they wish. There will be six sessions, three each day with a morning and afternoon session.

Pre-season testing marks the first time that all ten teams will be together in one location this season, ahead of the 24 race season. it will also be the first time that many drivers will be seen driving for their news teams, including Lewis Hamilton driving for Ferrari. It will also be the first time Isack Hadjar, Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto head out onto the track with full-time F1 seats.

After the hugely successful F175 livery reveal event at the O2 in London, the hype for the season is bigger than ever.

However, in the past pre-season testing has sometimes been a case of smoke and mirrors with teams trying to decode clues and solve riddles and find out as much as they can about the other teams on the grid.

The drivers will head out onto the Bahrain International Circuit, which will host the Bahrain Grand Prix in April. The circuit is 5.412 km (3.363 mi) and has a combination of long straights, tight corners, and high-speed sections, mastering this track requires a blend of precision, speed, and exceptional skill.

Wednesday 26 February 2025 - 07:00 to 16:00 GMT
Thursday 27 February 2025 - 07:00 to 16:00 GMT
Friday 28 February 2025 - 07:00 to 16:00 GMT

                       Wednesday                          Thursday                                Friday
                       AM                 PM               AM                 PM                  AM              PM
McLaren        Oscar            Lando          Oscar             Lando               Lando           Oscar
Mercedes      Kimi               George        George          Kimi                  Kimi              George
Ferrari           Lewis            Charles        TBC               TBC                  TBC              TBC
Williams        Alex             Carlos           Carlos          Carlos                  Alex             Alex
Aston Martin Fernando    Lance            Fernando    Lance                 Lance           Fernando
Alpine            Jack             Pierre            Pierre          Jack                   Jack              Pierre
Haas             Ollie              Esteban         Esteban       Ollie                   Ollie             Esteban      Red Bull        Liam             Max                Liam            Liam                   Max              Max
RB                 Yuki             Isack               Yuki             Isack                   Isack           Yuki            Sauber          Nico            Gabriel             Nico            Gabriel                Gabriel         Nico